THE  PASTOR 


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Mecxcie  C.WilWam'b 


v:v'N;'-SKiA;:*v.-  '^..i-^  rr -  ;:;ii,:v; i,\  • ,  ..^'-  *:  -":v.'i,,v • 


PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


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JUL  11  1912 


THE  PASTOR 


BY  THE 


V 


REV.  MEADE  C.  WILLIAMS,  1).  D., 


Pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.    Princeton     III. 


riMNCKTON,  ILL. 
.AIKUCKK  A  DEAN.  I'KINTKJIS, 

1887. 


This  essay  is  in  siil)stHiu'e  a  Lecture  wliich  was  delivered.  l>y  iiivitati 
of  tlie  Faculty,  before  the  students  of  the  McCormick  'riieolo^jii-ai  Seuiina 
in  Chicasro.  It  is  hereby  respectiully  addressed  to  youni>:  "i*'"  \^'1">  ^'Xp; 
soon  to  be  Pastors. 

rriiu-eton.  Ills..  Marcli.  ISST.  M.  (  .  W. 


THE  FASTOK. 


The  best  and  most  sitjijiticaut  title  of  the  Gospel  minister 
is  Pastor.  It  is  a  comprehensive  term,  and  all  his  varied 
functions  can  be  included  under  it.  While  however  the 
term  Pastor  is  generic,  and  "  Preacher  stands  related  to 
Pastor  but  as  part  to  the  whole,"*  yet  for  convenience 
sake,  we  have  come  to  designate  certain  parts  of  our  work  in 
their  distinction  from  other  parts,  as  Pastoral.  In  this 
sense  what  is  the  Pastor?      And  what  is  Pastoral  work? 

Probably  in  i)0])ular  estimation  Pastoral  labor  in  dis- 
tinction from  the  service  of  the  pulpit,  means  "making 
calls."  It  is  time  we  correct  and  enlarge  the  sense  of  the 
term.  I  therefore  make  it  include  all  if  our  service,  as  a 
minister  loJiich  is  outside  of  the  pulpit. 

In  general  then  never  forget  that  much,  very  much,  of 
your  labor  lies  outside  of  the  church  building  and  outside 
your  study  and  pertains  to  other  days  than  the  Sabbath. 
In  the  minds  of  some  young  ministers  the  impression  forms 
that  their  labor  is  entirely  intellectual,  and  before  public 
"  audiences."  That  by  a  platform  and  oratory  and  "mag- 
netism" they  are  to  "  take  heed  to  the  ministry "  and 
"  make  full  proof  "  of  the  same.  I  wish  to  modify  this 
conception  by  pressing  the  parocliial  idea.f     You  are  to  be 

*  Viiiet. 

t"As  a  iiarot'liial  iiiiiiistei-.  never  be  content  with  bein^f  merely  a  {)reac'lier. 
This  word  '  merely "  is  used  in  no  disiiarauement  of  preadiinj^.  j^ut  the  com- 
mission from  our  Master  and  from  our  Clmrch  is  wider  and  manifo'd." 
— Canon  Miller  in  '•  ('ler»ryman"s  Mairazine"     LoTidon. 


THE  PASTOR. 


related  to,  and  solemly  inducted  into  charge  of.  not  an 
audience  but  a  Parish  or  Constituency.      Your  Sabbath 
audience   never  will    be    coterminous    with   your  parish. 
Take   your   averag^e    congregation    and   you   can    always 
multiply  it  at  least  by  two,  when  you  want  to  get  at  the 
total  number  of  souls  under  your  jurisdiction.      Keep   a 
record  of  your  church   by  family  enumeration    and    not 
simply  by  the  connnunicant  roll,  or  by  counting  heads  on  a 
Sunday.     Often  only  one  of  a  family  may  be  a  communing 
member,  or  connected  witli  you  fis  an  attendant  on  your 
])reaching,  when  yet  you  may  regard  the  whole  household 
as  uiider  your  ])astoral  charge.     Then  count  up  the  aged 
of  your  people  who  can  not  belong  to  your  "hearers,"  the 
sick  and  otherwise  infirm,  and  the  children  too  young  yet 
to  be  taken  from  home,  and  the  unconverted  husbands  and 
young  men  who  while  regarding  you  as  the  family  Pastor 
are  themselves  careless  about  "  church  going."     Also  for- 
get not  those  "  outsiders,"  as  they  are  poimlary  called,  to 
be  found  in  every  community,  seldom  seen  at  a  ])ublic  re- 
ligious service,  but  who  as  they  will  express  it,  "  believe  in 
churches,"  and  who  from  some  dim  traditional  bias,  or  be- 
cause you  once  buried  a  member  of  their  liome,  or  because 
their  children  attend  your  Sabbath  School  or  because  they 
like  you  as  a  man,  will  tell  you  they  "  lean  to  your  church." 
Some  pro])ortion  of  these  and  other  outlying  borderers,  often 
well-nigh  ])agans  under  the  very  shadow  of  our  Sanctuaries, 
may  always  be  regarded  as  belonging  to  your  oversight. 

Thus  you  cannot  fulfil  your  ministry  simply  by  your 
Pulpit  work.  There  are  a  certain  few  men  belonging  to 
exceptional  classes  whose  work  is  bounded  by  the  Puli)it: 
the  popular  Evangelists,  for  instance,  who  are  heralds  only, 
never  assuming  a  pastoral  charge;  or  now  and  then  in  the 
settled  ministry  a  man  of  extraordinary  gifts  in  oratory 
wlio    gathers  a    large   congregation;    ("congregation"    I 


THE  PASTOR. 


say  and  congregation  only;  a  mere  assembly  of  individual 
hearers  rather  than  a  compact  and  efficient  church  or- 
ganism.) Also,  those  whose  church  membership  is  so 
large  that  it  is  impracticable  to  exercise,  except  in  a  gen- 
eral way,  much  of  pastoral  oversight,  or  even  to  know 
personally  all  their  people.  But  to  the  average  Minister,  to 
nine-tenths  of  us,  these  conditions  do  not  apply.  Our  use- 
fulness and  power  must  be  seen,  il  apparent  at  all,  in  the 
various  lines  of  pastoral  labor  concurrently  with  our 
preaching.  We  can  not  count  on  our  one  talent  of  public 
discourse  being  so  exceptionallj^  commanding  that  it  will 
overlap  our  deficiency  and  neglects  in  other  lines,  or  atone 
to  the  people  for  the  one-sided  development  they  would 
receive  at  our  hands.  And  very  few  are  the  parishes, 
which  either  by  their  great  extent  or  by  the  social  con- 
ditions of  city  life,  make  this  pastoral  care  impossible. 
In  the  whole  state  of  Illinois,  for  instance,  with  its 
nearly  five  hundred  Presbyterian  churches,  there  are 
scarcely  fift5^  which  are  not  in  rural  districts  or  in  villages 
and  towns  ranging  in  population  from  a  handful  to  a  few 
thousands.  And  the  ministers  in  the  smaller  communities 
have  an  advantage  in  this  respect,  according  to  good 
Archbishop  Leighton  who  commiserated  the  Clergy  of 
London  in  that  the  size  of  their  parishes  disabled  them 
from  giving  much  attention  to  the  individual  soul. 

The  "good  Shepherd  knows  his  sheep"  and  "calletheach 
by  name"  and  seeks  after  the  one  that  is  maimed  or  out 
of  the  way.  Besides  preaching  to  the  multitudes  on  the 
Mount,  on  the  sea  shore  or  in  the  wilderness,  much  of  our 
our  Lord's  ministry  was  in  the  line  of  private  and  personal 
interviews,  either  with  single  individuals  or  with  small 
groups  of  Jews,  or  with  his  band  of  the  Twelve.  The  dis- 
courses in  John's  gospel  are  largely  of  this  kind.  The 
Apostle  Paul  tells  us  his  general  practice  of  warning  every 


THE  PASTOR. 


ijjan,  teaching  every  man  tliat  he  might  present  every  man 
perfect  in  Clirist.*  In  bis  report  of  labor  at  Ephesus,t 
where  for  over  two  years  he  liad  been  a  resident  Pastor,  he 
claims  to  have  taught  "from  house  to  house"  as  well  as 
publicly,:^  and  that  he  had  "warned  every  one  night  and 
<lay  with  tears."  And  under  his  burdening  sense  of  re- 
sponsibility for  tliem  Ins  (-omfort  seems  to  have  been  the 
testimony  of  his  own  conscience  to  his  i)astoral  fidelity, 
that  thus  he  was  "pure  from  the  blood  of  all  men."  He 
bids  the  brethren  of  Thessalonica  remember  how  he  dealt 
witli  every  one  of  them,  or  "each  one"  as  the  R.  V. 
lias  it;  how  "we exhorted  and  conjforted  and  charged  each 
one  of  you."i|  His  habit  of  friendly,  pastoral  interest  in 
individuals  is  further  l)et()kened  in  his  e])istles  by  his  ex- 
pressions of  affectionate  desire  to  see  again  their  faces;  by 
his  discriminating  salutations  to  one  and  another  in  the 
churches;  and  by  the  sjiecific  counsels  he  apportions  ac- 
cording to  liis  personal  ac(]uaintance  with  the  varying 
wants  and  ex|)eriences  of  those  to  whom  lie  writes. >^ 

But  the  thought  is  often  indulged  tliat  the  intellectual 
demands  ujxui  the  puljiit  in  this  day  preclude  such  minute 
and  j)ains-taking  (;are  in  the  oversight  of  a  church. 
Now  I  would  regret  exceedingly  to  be  understood  as 
disparaging  the  imi)ortance  or  the  claims  of  .the 
work  in  the  Study.  1  urge  that  you  carry  your  seminary 
habits  of  studionsness  into  your  pastorates,  aiid  that  you 
bring  always  well-beaten  oil  to  the  sanctuary.  But  J 
object  to  the  unfortunate  and  unwise  judgment  tliat  it  is 
im])ossible  for  the  same  man  to  sliow  a  record  of  work  ex- 

M'olds..  \:IK  +  Acts  '.'tills  :i"). 

+  \\'liile  tlie  (liciples  (»n»'ii  licld  tlicir  services  of  \V(»rslii|i  in  piivatc  Imiiscs, 
(lloiii..  Mi:.")-.  I  Cor..  Ifcl'.t).  yet  tlie  contrast  witli  '•  publicly"  makes  tliis  most 
prol)ably  a  reference  to  the  Apostle's  jiersonal  ministry  witliin  the  homes. 
(Ml  this  then  lake  Heiiyel's  remark:  "  Ne  upostnluo  -inidem  muiieri  tam  late 
jiateiiti  imhlica  pra-dicatione  satis  tiebat.  (luiil /(/.-/'/;//'«.•■  facien(him  ?■" 
I  'I'hess.  2:11.- -M«  .-((./.Tr.,!  t;li'om.   H".:!    lO;   I'liilip.   I:i;i 


THE  PASTOR. 


teiidiiig  in  both  departments  of  ministry  which  the 
Master  can  pronounce  "  well  done,"  This  does  not  neces- 
sarily imply  a  low  grade  of  excellence  in  either  line  but  it 
does  imply  a  high  degree  of  diligence  and  fidelity  in 
both.*  Pulpit  work,  preaching,  is  indeed  our  highest 
function.  But  is  that  style  of  sermonizing  which  takes 
on  no  coloring,  and  receives  no  bent  froui  personal 
contact  with  the  people,  is  that  the  best  way  of  beating 
the  oil?  "At  home  among  books  but  at  sea  among  men?" 
All  study  and  abstraction  from  the  current  of  adjacent 
life  will  make  you  dull  in  one  sense  at  least  of  the  word, 
and  I  fear  you  <\ould  answer  to  the  description  given  of  a 
certain  minister  that  he  w.as  "invisible  six  days  of  tlie 
week  and  incomnrehensible  the  seventh."  +  Mr.  Spurgeon 
gives  the  advice  to  preachers  "stand  in  the  stream  and 
fish. "  Endeavor  to  be  acquainted  with  your  people  in  their 
secular  life.  Know  what  vocations  they  follow,  what 
cares  opi)ress  them,  what  company  they  mingle  in, 
and  what  sins  do  most  easily  beset  them,  and  let  your  in- 
fluence be  felt  in  the  social  and  family  life  of  the  congre- 
gation.:^ Seek  skill  in  binding  up  the  broken-hearted,  and 
wisdom  to  drop  a  word  in  season  to  him  that  is  weary,  and 
grace  to  sympathize  wqth  those  in  adversity.  Cultivate  a 
con)passionate  spirit  towards  the  poor,  a  tender  thoughtful- 

*"  I  do  not  envy  a  clergyman's  lite  as  an  easy  lite,  nor  do  I  envy  the  clergy- 
man who  makes  it  an  easy  life."  -Dr.  Samuel  .Tolnison  in  15os\vell,  ^'ol.  \\[, 
p.  2(i.">. 

tOr  you  might  possibly  bebroughtunder  the  coniical  imputation,  which  as 
the  story  goes,  once  attached  to  the  celebrated  Hossuet.  just  after  he  had  been 
appointed  to  a  l»ishopric.  Some  of  the  peoi)le  being  asked  how  they  liked 
him.  said  tliev  would  have  preferred  a  man  who  had  finislied  his  education, 
for  whenever  they  called  at  his  house  they  were  told  the  Uishoj*  was  at  his 
studies! 

:j:Hyle  in  his  '•  England  A  Hundred  Years  ago,"  tells  of  William  (irimshaw, 
Curate  of  Ilaworth.  that  of  nearly  all  of  tlie  several  hundreds  who  belonged 
to  his  charge  -he  was  as  well  aciiuainted  with  their  several  temptations, 
trials  and  mercies,  both  personal  and  domestic,  as  if  he  had  lived  in  their 
families." 


THE  PASTOR. 


ness  for  the  aged,  a  readiness  in  spiritual  ministry  with  the 
sick,  a  winning  manner  with  children,  and  great  fidelity  to 
the  unsaved. 

Settle  it  then  in  your  mind  that  the  sermon  is 
only  one  of  a  number  of  co-operating  forces  in  the  Pastor- 
ate. You  are  not  only  to  be  Preachers,  Heralds,  Ambas- 
sadors with  a  message,  but  you  are  to  be  entrusted  with 
oversight.  People  are  to  be  looked  up,  looked  after  and 
overlooked.  The  most  sagacious  John  Wesley  left  an 
observation  which  I  wish  every  young  Timothy  would 
carry  with  him  as  he  leaves  the  seminary.  "  By  repeated 
experiments,'"  he  says,  "we  learn  that  though  a  man 
preach  like  an  angel,  he  will  neither  collect  nor  preserve  a 
society  which  is  collected,  without  visiting  them  from 
house  to  house.''  And  will  you  i)lease  adopt  as  a 
cherished  aphorism  the  remark  of  Dr.  Chalmers,  "a  house- 
going  minister  makes  a  church-going  people." 

I  liave  said  it  is  a  mistake  to  conceive  of  Pastoral  work 
as  merely  making  calls.  So  it  is.  But  e(]ually  is  it  a 
mistake  to  exclude  that  conception.  I  ju-ess  its  impor- 
tance. It  is  often  disesteemed  and  by  some  held  in  contempt. 
It  has  been  "taken  oft"  in  derisive  wit  as  "])eddling  civil- 
ity round  the  parish,"  and  as  degrading  the  minister  of 
the  gospel  into  a  mere  "social  roundsman"  wlio  has  to  dis- 
tribute "  attentio7is,"  and  discuss  in  the  homes  of  the  peo- 
ple sucli  trifling  subjects  as  the  weather,  the  childrens' 
colds  and  the  incidents  of  the  sunuiier  vacation  I  Yea, 
it  has  even  been  intimated  more  seriously,  that  the 
Pastor's  call  on  a  family  in  the  absence  of  the  husband 
is  a  matter  of  (piestional)le  ])ropriety.  How  these  critics 
would  liave  been  liorritied  by  the  rej)ly  u  certain  faithfttl, 
hard-working  country  curate  in  England  once  gave  his 
Bishop.  Tlie  l^isho])  wishing  his  clergy  to  be  "well  up" 
in    the    Patristic    literMtnre    of    tlie    early    church,  asked 


THE  PASTUJR. 


this  clergyman  if  he  studied  the  Fathers.  "Not  very 
much,"  he  answered.  "The  fathers  are  generally  out  in 
the  fields,  but  I  study  the  mothers  a  great  deal."  Three 
fourths  or  more  in  our  congregations  are  of  the  female  sex, 
and  we  cannot  ignore  our  pastoral  relation  to  them 
because  of  prudish  hyper-criticism.  We  do  not  forget 
however  what  careful  decorum  and  delicacy  are  here 
demanded  on  the  Pastor's  part.  Paul,  in  his  Pas- 
toral Epistles  so  replete  with  practical  counsels  to  young 
ministers,  has  not  forgotten  to  touch  on  this  very  subject. 
"Entreat  the  elder  women  as  mothers;  the  younger  wo- 
men as  sisters,"  *  that  is,  as  being  all  ahke  to  you  in  the 
relationship  that  is  in  Christ. f  This  counsel  is  the  more 
significant  by  reason  of  the  apostle  adding  the  words 
"with  all  purity. "I  Need  I  say  further  that  in  reference 
to  these  and  to  many  other  delicate  relations  in  which 
a  Pastor  stands,  as  in  reference  to  his  whole  line  of  re- 
sponsibility, he  needs  a  fair  measure  of  good  sense.  This 
endowment,  desirable  in  any  calling  in  life,  is  particularly 
so  in  the  Pastor's.  As  a  natural  possession  it  is  often  of 
more  practical  avail  than  brilliant  parts.  To  some  extent 
it  is  like  the  poet's  art,  in-born  and  not  acquired.  So  that 
i  John  Brown,  of  Haddington,  used  to  say  to  his  students, 
"  If  ye  lack  grace,  ye  may  get  it  by  praying  for  it;  if  ye 
I  lack  learning,  ye  niay  get  it  by  working  for  it ;  but 
I  if  ye  lack  common  sense,  I  dinna  ken  where  ye  are  to  get  it." 

'  It  is  an  easy  thing  surely  to  utter  gibes  about  Pastoral 
visiting.  Formerly  it  was  lampooned  as  too  grim  and  in- 
quisitorial. Now  the  critics  seem  to  have  taken  another  tack 
and  they  deride  it  as  too  light  and  inconsequential  a  cus- 
tom.    At  the  caricatures  of  it  ive  can  be  amused  as  well  as 

*  I  Tim.  5:2. 
j     tEllicott  quotes  in  loc  the  rule  of  .lerome;  -oinues  pnellas  et  virgines  Clu-isti 
jaut  nequaliter  iguora  aut  aniualiter  dilige." 

JTlieir  reference  is  to  the  r^uripar. 


10  THE  PASTOR. 


they  without  our  conviction  of  its  real  and  earnest  import- 
ance being  in  the  least  disturbed.    Of  course,  by  pastoral  vis- 
its is  not  meant  merely  formal  religious  calls,  but  also  the 
friendly  "dropping  in,"  the  calls  of  civility  and  courtes3% 
the  calls  of  sympathy,  the  calls  of  politeness  to  strangers 
and  new  comers,  the  neighborhood  calls.       All  such,  not 
purely  social  and  not  purely  religious,  but  yet  christian, 
and  done   in   a  familiar  and  friendly  manner,  in  your  ca- 
pacity as  Pastor,  are  pastoral  calls,  and  can  be  tributary 
to  your  work.      But  furtlier,  we  Uiust  not  think  of  house 
callinfi   of  whatever  kind,  as  the  only  method    of    week- 
day pastoral  intercourse.     Be  not  too  ceremonious  or  too 
systematic.      Think    not  that  a  ])ersonal  communication  , 
on  spiritual  things  can  only  be  made  by  a  gradual  zigzag 
course  of  approach  as  if  you  were  laying  siege  to  a  forti- 1 
fication.     The  casual  remark,  the  tract,  the  wayside  seed, 
the  conference  on  the  street  it  may  be,  the  brief  word  in  the! 
business  house  or  shop,  the  little  note  written  in  love  and 
])rayer ;  by  these  "  out  of  season  "  as  well  as  the  "  in  season"  r 
methods,  this  sowing  by  all  waters,  thus  too  will  you  be| 
illustrating  pastoral  diligence.    Oh,  these  private  interviews 
with  the  unconverted  I     Pastoral  work  indeed!     No  limit 
to    it  I     There    is  danger    of    forgetting   its   importance. 
Baxter  says  he  seldom  dealt  thus  witli  men  alone  with- 
out their  going  away  with  some  seeming  convictions  and 
promises  of  new  obedience,  and  that  he  found  an  ignorant 
sot  would  get  more  knowledge  and  remorse  of  conscience 
in  half-an-hour's  close  (conversation  than   he   did  in  ten 
years   preaching.*       And  it  is  the  famous  ancient  writer 
on  rhetoric  *^  wlio  illustrates  the  same  advantage  by  saying 
you  are  more  likely  to  fill  narrow-moutlied  l)ottles  by  tak- 
ing them  singly  by  the  hand  and  pouring  water  into  them 
than  to  j)ut  them  togetlier  and  |)()ur  water  upon  the  whole 

*'riu   lif'ttn  iii»'<l  I'astdi.  i-liji.  .').  +  C^uiiitiliaii. 


THE  PASTOR.  H 


€ollrction.  And  these  persons  in  our  congregations  ex- 
pect us  thus  to  approach  them  and  wonder  we  do  it  so 
seldom.  And  thus  doing  you  will  often  be  surprised  and 
stand  rebuked  for  your  misgiving  and  weak  faith  by  find- 
ing, if  not  at  once  their  obedient  response,  at  least  their 
grateful  appreciation  of  your  kindness  and  their  increased 
esteem  for  you.  And  the  benefit  to  yourselves,  my  Breth- 
ren in  this  hand-to-liand  work,  whether  with  the  unsaved 
or  witli  your  experienced  fellow-christians !  It  will  re- 
fresh your  own  spirtual  life,  it  will  drive  away  "  the  blues," 
it  will  dispel  the  sometime  rising  shadows  of  doubt  from 
your  mind  and  will  keep  you  in  fresh  and  close  contact  with 
the  simple  trutlis  of  the  Gospel. 

In  regard  to  such  lines  of  pastor  work  as  I  have  been 
indicating,  certain  counter-views  lie  perhaps  unspoken 
but  operative  in  the  minds. of  some  young  ministers.  They 
think  of  their  vocation  too  exclusively  from  its  intellec- 
tual side.  Their  chief  conception  of  responsibility,  it 
would  seem,  is  in  being  "leaders  of  opinion,"  and  in  "keep- 
ing abreast  of  the  times,"  and  in  bringing  forth  their 
"latest  thought!"  This  state  of  mind  will  often  interfere 
with  a  congenial  appreciation  of  pastoral  occupations. 
Then  along  with  this,  I  fancy  that  in  the  minds  of  some 
of  the  brethren  such  services  are  ranked  as  very  lowly  and 
inferior,  are  associated  with  mediocrity  of  talent,  and  are 
thought  not  to  comport  with  a  "manly"  and  "forceful" 
character,  or  with  the  ambition  of  what  is  called  a  "bril- 
liant career."  May  the  Lord  give  us  grace  and  reveal  to 
us  what  be  the  first  principles  of  the  minister's  calling! 
Who  have  been  the  eminent  men,  I  will  not  say  of  the 
Pulpit,  but  of  the  Ministry?  The  most  useful  models  for 
you  to  study  are  not  the  famous  triad  of  the  French 
court;  nor  the  tew  illustrious  preachers  at  the  English 
universities,   who  in  their  freedom  from  parochial  afiairs 


lii  THE  PASTOR. 


are  called  occasionally  to  prepare  a  great  Pulpit  "effort." 
As  illustrating  the  homiletic  art,  their  productions  may 
be  profitably  studied ;  but  for  you,  who  expect  to  be 
ministers  in  parish  charges,  I  would  present  another  class 
of  men. 

Think,  for  instance,  of  Richard  Baxter.  Was  he  lacking 
in  the  strong  elements  of  a  man?  A  student  of  the  scrip- 
tures in  the  original  tongues,  well  versed  in  ancient  pagan 
and  scholastic  philosophy,  of  extensive  theological  erudi- 
tion, and  the  author  of  over  one  hundred  and  sixty  publi- 
cations, preaching  or  lecturing  every  day  of  the  year, 
having  six  hundred  communing  members  in  his  Kidder- 
minster church ;  yet  the  most  abundant  and  pains-taking 
in  pastoral  labors,  visiting  his  whole  congregation,  looking 
after  the  children,  the  sick,  the  poor  and  the  unconverted, 
and  securing  a  family  altar  in  nearly  every  home. 

Or  what  would  you  say  of  Dr.  Chalmers?  Does  he 
strike  you  a,s  w^anting  in  the  fibre  of  intellectual  or  manly 
character?  Well,  he  was  the  most  remarkable  Pastor  ol 
modern  days — he  whom  Peter  Bayne  calls  a  "great  mass 
of  common  sense."  At  the  very  time  when  living  in  a 
blaze  of  unparalleled  popularity,  with  a  fame  for  learning 
and  pul])it  eloquence  which  extended  throughout  the  whole 
kingdom,  the  world  "wild  about  him,"  he  is  pastoriziug  a 
Glasgow  parish  of  two  thousand  families.  Besides  estab- 
lishing schools  and  other  measures  for  tem])oral  good,  we 
find  him  looking  after  barefooted  children,  and  the  servant 
classes;  we  see  him  diving  into  noisome  kennels,  feeling 
his  way  up  dark,  winding  stairways,  seeking  out  destitu- 
tion and  sin,  bringing  tlie  truth  and  consolation  of  the 
gospel,  and  visiting  personally  all  his  families. 

Or,  turn  to  that  other  Scotch  Thomas,  Dr.  Guthrie. 
No  weakling  was  he,  either.  A  man  of  intellectual 
standing  atid  force  of  character.     Aye,  ])erhaps  we  might 


THE  PASTOR.  18 


apply  to  him  as  regards  pulpit  ability,  that  favorite  adjec- 
tive of  to-day  which  expresses  the  popular  ideal  of  excel- 
lence, "brilliant."  Yet  Guthrie  was  known  as  the  "house- 
going  minister."*  It  is  written  of  him  "he  might  have 
been  met  almost  every  day  in  the  w^eek  visiting  from  cellar 
to  garret,  tht?  crowded  homes  of  his  neglected  parishion- 
ers," and  his  people  of  all  classes  prized  him  as  their 
faithful  Pastor,  as  well  as  admired  him  as  a  great  Pulpit 
orator.  The  same  use,  if  not  in  the  same  degree,  could  be 
made  of  Arnot  and  Norman  McLeod. 

But  what  say  you  to  Frederick  Robertson,  of  Brighton? 
In  a  different  way  from  these  Scotch  compeers,  yet  while 
remarkable  for  the  originality  and  highly  intellectual  char- 
acter of  his  preaching,  and  at  the  same  time  a  perfect  type 
of  soldierly  manliness,  he  was  in  his  own  methods  also  an 
earnest  pastor  of  men — visiting  the  homes,  attaching  to  him- 
self the  humbler  classes,  promoting  by  week-day  measures 
the  interests  of  working  men,  training  his  Sunday-school 
teachers,  with  great  imtience  and  care  preparing  his  con- 
t^rmation  classes  of   children,  and  studying  to  make  the 

illest  understand  the  elements  of  spiritual  truth. 

And  very  much  of  the  credit  and  favor  which  the 
ritualistic  clergymen  in  England  are  now  receiving  is  due 
not  to  the  sentiments  they  teach  or  the  ceremonial  forms 
of  worship  they  introduce,  but  to  their  pastoral  diligence. 
The  Non-Conformist  ministers  likewise  of  the  same 
country,  as  we  learn,  are  as  regular  in  tliis  branch  of 
work  as  in  their  Sabbath  preaching.  In  oar  own  land,  too, 
could  be  named  some  of  the  foremost  ministers  of  the 
present  day,  with  a  pulpit  fame  which  is  not  only  metro- 
politan but  national,  as  tar  as  churches  and  christian  ranks 
are  concerned,  who  are  systematic  and  conscientiously 
diligent  in  the  humbler  work  of  household  visitation. 

*So  dubbed  by  Chalmers.     Lite  of  (Jutlirie.  vol.  1.  p.  :^S1. 


U  THE  PASTOR. 


I  said  at  the  outset  that  pastoral  service  did  not  mean 
merely  making  calls,  or  the  matter  of  personal  intercourse 
with  the  people,  but  that  all  the  variety  of  ministerial 
work  which  lies  outside  the  pulpit  and  the  conduct  of 
public  worship  is  included  in  it.  All  these  different  feat- 
ures might  be  embraced  under  the  general  term  parochial 
admifnstratio7i,  and  go  to  make  up  what  Dr.  Jas.  Alex^an- 
der  called  his  "parochialia."*  For  one  thmg  a  Pastor 
should  l-uo/p  his  field.  Like  a  merchant,  often  take  in- 
voice; know  what  you  have  got  and  have  it  well  in  hand. 
There  are  certain  data,  numerical  and  other  kinds,  which 
if  ascertained  would  greatly  aid  you  in  forming  an  intelli- 
gent estimate  of  the  state  of  religion  among  your  people, 
and  would  furnish  materials  for  a  more  precise  and  tangi- 
ble report  to  the  Presbytery  than  we  generally  get  in  the 
annual  "narratives"  on  the  subject.  A  Pastor  of  course 
knows  the  number  of  his  membership,  the  average  attend- 
ance on  public  meetings,  and  the  size  of  the  Sunday  school. 
But  why  not,  at  the  cost  of  some  ))ains  ])erhaps,  inforni  "^ 
hin)self  on  such  other  points  as  these:  How  many  fami-''^li 
lies  have  tlie  altar  of  ])rayer?  How  many  church  papef'^r 
and  missionary  periodicals  circulate  in  the  bounds  of  tlie 
congregation?  What  is  the  character  of  the  secular  lit- 
erature in  the  homes?  What  forms  of  worldliness  are 
prevailing?  Is  tbe  sanctity  of  the  Sabbath  maintained? 
Is  religious  benevolence  growing?  etc.,  etc. 

For  another  thing  let  us  remember  that  an  organized 
church  is  not  a  mere  collection  of  individuals  and  families. 
It  belongs  to  a  kingdom  and  is  part  of  a  working  force  and 
a  marching  army.  Concerning  all  tlie  details  and  with  an 
eye  tx)  the  general  movement,  the  Pastor  is  exj)ected  to 
know  and  to  suggest  and  to  lead. 

Among  the  Pastoral  items  is  the  carp  of  flic  cliildren  of 

*■  Forty  ^'^^•ll•s'  ('onvspoiulcice.     vol.  II,  p.  ITn. 


THE  PASTOR.  15 


tlie  church.  I  refer  now  to  instraction  additional  to  that 
of  the  palpit  and  the  Sunday  school.  Old  fashioned  cate- 
chising, it  is  thought,  is  becoming  one  of  the  "lost  arts," 
but  the  practice  of  bringing  children  into  personal  contact 
with  the  Pastor  for  instruction  in  the  truths  of  the  Bible 
should  not  be  obsolete.  You  ought  not  conclude  if,  in 
these  days  of  "optional  studies"  you  can  not  induce  them 
to  take  the  Shorter  Catechism,  or  at  least  an  eclectic 
course  in  it,  that  there  is  no  method  of  pastoral  instruction 
of  the  youth.  I  have  referred  to  Kobertson's  pains  with 
his  confirmation  classes.  The  "confirmation"  principle 
aside,  why  should  not  every  minister  have  his  class  among 
the  church  youth  for  simple  indoctrination,  and  thus  also 
promoting  on  their  part  confidence  and  freedom  with  him. 
Call  it  "Pastor's  Class,"  or  "Young  Communicant's  Class," 
or,  if  you  choose,  by  no  name  at  all.  Thus  could  we  best 
watch  the  first  buddings  of  the  tender  vines,  and  note  the 
growing  stages  of  that  knowledge  to  discern  the  Lord's 
body  and  tliat  faith  to  feed  upon  him,  when  we  can  say  to 
them,  "come  with  your  parents  to  the  communion  table." 

Then  again,  there  is  the  Pastor's  responsibility  in  refer- 
ence to  discipline.  In  Paul's  counsels  to  ministers  he 
charges  them  to  be  gentle,  and  averse  to  strife,  seeking  in 
meekness  to  instruct  those  that  oppose  the  truth.  But 
this  is  not  to  be  confounded  with  weak-spiritedness,  for  the 
young  preacher  is  told  to  "let  no  one  despise  him,"*  and  he 
is  reminded  that  Grod  has  not  given  him  "the  spirit  of  tearful- 
ness,"t  and  that  there  are  times  when  he  is  to  "rebuke 
sharply."]:  Reprimand  and  counsel  failing,  don't  forget 
the  power  of  the  keys  lodged  with  the  Session.  McCheyne 
tells  us  that  at  the  first  of  his  ministry  he  greatly  de- 
preciated the  importance  of  cliurch  discipline  and  sup- 
posed his  almost  only  work  was  to  pray  and  })reac}i,   but 

*Titiis2:ir).        til  Tim.  1:7.  H.   \'.        JTitusI:i:i 


16  THE  PASTOR 


that  afterwards,  as  a  result  of  observation  in  certain  eases 
when  this  painful  process  was  required,  a  new  light  broke 
on  his  mind,  and  he  saw  that  if  preaching  was  an  ordinance 
of  Christ,  so  also  is  church  disciphne.* 

The  administration  of  church  charity  among  the  poor  is 
another  item  in  pastoral  oversight.  Wherever  you  go  you 
will  find,  few  or  many,  the  needy  and  dependent — among 
your  pious  church  people,  to  some  extent,  and  largely  in  the 
outside  community.  In  the  pastoral  epistles  this  subject 
is  brought  to  Timothy's  attention,  and  the  germs  and 
principles,  easy  to  be  expanded,  are  there  given  of  a  great 
subject,  a  subject  which  in  the  near  future,  and  especially  in 
our  cities,  must  be  more  thoroughly  considered  by  the  Prot- 
estant ministry  and  the  Protestant  churches  than  it  lias 
ever  yet  been.  "The  poor  ye  have  always  with  you;"  "I 
w^as  sick  and  ye  visited  me;  naked  and  ye  clothed  me;" 
"visiting  the  widows  and  the  fatherless."  Tlie  spirit  of 
these  sacred  behests  is  not  fulfilled  bj'  county  poor  houses; 
neither  is  it  by  the  desultory  and  diminutive  work  of  our 
present  Diaconate  system.  Uhlhorn's  late  book  on  the 
"Charities  of  the  Early  Church,"  ilhistrates  what  care  of 
the  poor  bi/  the  church  once  signified.  The  day  must  soon 
come  in  tliis  country,  as  it  is  already  in  other  cln-istian 
lands  when  Hospitals,  Orj)han  Asylums,  Relief  Boards,  In- 
dustrial Homes  and  such  like  eleemosynary  institutions 
must  belong  to  Protestant  church  organism  as  they  do  to 
the  Komish.  In  its  measure  now  each  local  church  lias 
responsibility  of  this  kind,  and  to  stimulate  such  benevo- 
lence and  direct  in  its  discreet  and  christian  application 
will  always  be  the  |)art  of  the  Pastor. 

*  Memoir  l)y  IJonar.  j).  Ii»i. 


THE  PASTOR.  17 


Now,  briefly,  the  Pastor  in  his  personalit5^  We  some- 
times protest  against  being  regarded  as  of  a  separate  order 
or  class  from  our  fellow-disciples.  But  as  reasonable  as 
our  protest  may  be,  society  will  always  insist  on  drawing 
this  distinction.  The  Pastor  stands  on  a  different  level 
from  the  layman,  and  is  judged  by  another  standard.  He 
comes  to  a  community  an  utter  stranger;  his  extraction, 
his  antecedents,  his  personal  traits  entirely  unknown. 
But  he  is  not  required  first  to  earn  respect  and  confidence. 
The  people  may  be  uncertain  as  to  his  talent  and  his  dili- 
gence in  work,  but  it  never  occurs  to  them  to  suspend 
judgment  on  the  question  of  his  character.  They  take 
for  granted  his  uprightness  and  his  purity.  Where  a  bus- 
iness man,  or  one  in  the  other  professions,  must  slowly 
make  his  way  and  first  prove  himself  w^orthy  of  confidence 
and  social  consideration,  the  Pastor  and  his  family  are 
spared  this  probation.  They  step  at  once  into  the  favor 
and  good  will  of  all.  But  while  such  general  confidence 
is  tlius  spontaneously  given  him,  there  is  this  serious  col- 
lateral fact  that  he  may  sooner  and  more  irretrievably  for- 
feit it  than  the  layman.  It  takes  much  fewer  and  slighter 
deviations  from  rectitude  to  nullify  his  influence  and 
destroy  his  name  than  with  those  in  secular  callings. 
Mathew  Arnold  says,  "character  is  three-fourths  of  life."' 
In  the  Pastor's  case  may  we  not  say  it  is  the  whole  of  it? 
Good  character  is  his  reserve  capital  If  that  be  gone  he 
is  hopelessly  bankrupt.  "Be  sure  your  example  exhorts 
as  well  as  your  words,"  as  Baxter  says;  or  as  Leighton 
writes,  "either  teach  none  or  let  your  life  teach." 

The  Pastor  has  many  a  care  and  vexation  of  spirit.  But 
on  the  whole  his  can  prove  a  happy  lot;  and  I  mean  too  in 
its  comforts  and  rewards  this  side  of  Heaven.  Only  show 
yourself  sincerely  the  servant  of  Christ  and  the  people's 
servant  for  Christ's  sake,  seeking  not  their's  but  them,  and 


18  THE  PASTOR. 


the  glory  of  Him  who  sent  you,  aiming  rather  to  make 
your  ministry  a  blessing  than  "a  success,"*  and  there  is 
not  a  church  in  the  land  where,  unless  you  are  too  nomadic 
in  your  pastorate,  you  will  fail  to  receive  that  esteem  and 
a|)preciation  which  will  be  a  constant  tide  of  refreshment 
to  your  spirit.  You  will  meet  a  welcome  every  time  you 
call  at  the  homes  of  your  people  and  will  lind  yourself  a 
guest  whom  they  delight  to  honor.  They  will  admit 
you  to  family  confidences.  They  will  tell  you  their  joys 
and  oh  yes  I  their  sorrows  too.  They  will  teach  their  chil- 
dren to  cherish  the  name  of  him  who  baptized  them,  and 
when  the  marriage  days  come  the  bride  will  feel  it  would 
hardly  he  marriage  unless  solemnized  by  her  own  Pastor. 
At  the  family  altar  along  with  petitions  for  home  and  kindred 
they  will  pray  for  you.  In  times  of  affliction  they  will  re- 
gard it  as  one  of  their  chief  comforts  that  they  have  your 
presence.  You  will  be  admitted  to  the  sick  room  when 
perhaps  the  invalid  can  see  no  other  friend,  and  your  voice 
in  the  whispers  of  scripture  hope  and  in  the  hushed  tones 
of  prayer  will  be  among  the  last  sounds  to  fall  on  the  ear 
of  the  dying.  And  long  after  the  sad  funeral  day, 
mingled  with  thoughts  of  the  dear  one  gone  will  be  a  ten- 
der remembrance  of  the  Pastor  who  stood  beside  the 
mourners  at  the  grave. 

In  other  respects  too  there  will  come  much  that  is  grat- 
ifying. Outside  of  your  church  families  and  throughout 
the  whole  community,  unless  your  lot  be  cast  in  the  large 
engulfing  cities,  your  influence  will  ramify,  your  name  will 
be  known,  and  you  will  find  yourself  treated  by  all  classes 
with  the  utmost  respect  and  deference  as  an  educated  chris- 
tian gentleman  who  identifies  himself  with  the  locality 
seeking  to  do  good. 

*  TlievH  is  a  smack  of  carnality  about  tliis  i)o])Mlar  word  in  sndi  con- 
iifction,  suHicient  at  least  to  siififjest  a  iu'etVrcncc  for  tlie  other  term  wliicli 
savors  more  of  the  divine  seal  and  of  "the  honor  that  comet h  fr(»m  <!od  only." 


THE  PASTOR.  19 


Domestically  I  believe  the  Pastor  generally  has  more 
than  the  average  of  satisfaction  and  happiness.  Despite 
his  sometime  anxiety  in  temporal  things  occasioned  by  the 
"res  angustae''  of  salary,  the  Manse  is  one  of  the  brightest 
and  most  cheerful  homes  in  the  whole  congregation. 
Within  its  walls  is  seen  more  of  innocent  and  rational  en- 
joyment than  in  many  a  more  pretentious  house,  while  in 
the  closet  there  are  fewer  of  those  skeletons  which  mean 
social  disgrace  and  shame.  And  in  the  outcome  of  the 
minister's  boys  and  girls,  there  is  more  that  rejoices  the 
hearts  of  the  parents  when  they  are  old. 

The  Pastor.  Scriptural  office !  Scriptural  work !  Script- 
ural name!  Unto  the  church  Christ  has  given  pastors, 
7rr>(/ue»'at,*  writcs  Paul.  Ouc  notablc  instance  of  such 
appointment  by  the  Savior  was  when  after  his  gra- 
cious forgiveness  of  Peter,  he  said  to  him  Trui/jaiye  ru 
7r|uo/3a7-a  yuov,f  "fccd  my  shccp;"  that  is  nurture  them, 
tend  them,  pastorize  them.  Did  Peter  thus  charged  re- 
tain ever  a  solemn  and  tender  association  with  that  par- 
ticular word?  And  was  it  in  part  as  expressing  his  sense 
of  the  grace  of  Him  who  entrusts  his  work  to  those  who 
have  for  themselves  first  known  his  love,  that  long  years 
afterward  this  Apostle  addressing  all  fellow-laborers  in 
tlie  Gospel  bids  us  Pastors  think  of  that  Lord,  from  wdiom 
we  have  our  commission,  as  the  apxi^oii^eiw^l  the  "Chief 
Shepherd,"  THE  PASTOR. 

*Ei)lies.  4:11.        t.lohii '21 :1»).        JTIVt.  0:4. 


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